NATIONAL REVIEW
Mr. Coburn Went to Washington and Left a Remarkable Example
by John Fund
March 29, 2020

Tom Coburn, the 72-year-old physician and former Oklahoma senator who passed away Saturday, battled the prostate cancer that felled him the same way he battled big spenders and spineless politicians in Washington: with cheerful, unrelenting persistence. If you’re ever seriously ill, Coburn’s life is itself an inspiration. He contracted melanoma when he was 28 and working as manager of his family’s optical-lens factory. He was given only a 20 percent chance of living. He beat the melanoma, and his struggle convinced him to enter medical school and become a doctor. Years later, he contracted colon cancer and conquered that, too. In 2008, he had brain surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. READ MORE